Becky Albertalliand Katie Cotugno are bestselling authors, both with highly-anticipated YA novels on shelves this June.
BECKY ALBERTALLI: Katie!
I finishedYou Say It First, and I can’t even tell you how much I loved it.
Credit: Courtesy Harper Collins
I related so much to Meg, and I know so many people like Colby.
Also, I shipped Meg and Colby so hard, it’s ridiculous.
KATIE COTUGNO:BECKY!
Thank you so much, first of all!
ALSO, I just finishedLove, Creekwood, and it was such an utter delight!
Can you talk a little bit about coming around to the idea of returning to the Simonverse?
It all happened extraordinarily quickly.
HarperCollins was on board, and I knew from the beginning that I’d be donating all my proceeds.
But these conversations happened in February of this year.
I know there’s no way you wrote it this year, but it’s so remarkably timely.
In particular, the ways you unpack Meg’s privilege and Colby’s privilege feel more important than ever.
How intentional was that?
Was this on your mind when you wrote it?
COTUGNO:Oh my gosh, absolutely.
Meg means well, but she messes up CONSTANTLY.
Can you talk about the process of creating new conflict for characters who are so deeply beloved?
ALBERTALLI:First of all, everything you just said about Meg and Colby resonates with me SO deeply.
It’s such ongoing work.
You’re RIGHT the need for real, deep conflict made me very squeamish about writing a sequel!
Which of course makes me want to ask you all my shippy Meg/Colby questions!
Were there certain moments between you knew you wanted to include?
Did your characters take the wheel at any point?
Doesn’t get more liminal than that.
Creatively speaking, how does the co-writing process compare to the work you do solo?
ALBERTALLI:Katie Cotugno, you are the QUEEN of messy complicated romances!
And I love the idea of exploring this sort of liminal space relationship.
I was so moved by that!!
It was also a very tense reading experience at times because there was no safety net.
And that book was such a joyful, cathartic experience from start to finish.
I’ve been so lucky with both of my collaborations YNMSwith Aisha andWhat If Its Uswith Adam Silvera.
It’s terrifying at first!
I just loved both experiences so much.
I actually had a very, very hard time transitioning back to solo projects.
COTUGNO:Speaking of solo projects…
I kind of have separation anxiety from you right now?
Thanks so much for catching up with me, Becky, and congrats again onLove, Creekwood!
This was so much fun.
ALBERTALLI:I feel the same!!
And congratulations on launchingYou Say It First, yet another Cotugno masterpiece.
Im so excited to watch people fall in love with it, just like I did.
